OLAF email: UKIP fraud investigation ongoing, hints at wider scope

At the turn of the year, the SKWAWKBOX revealed that UKIP was under investigation by the European Commission’s anti-fraud unit OLAF for huge alleged fraud of up to €20 million – and in relation to child pornography allegations – an investigation on a far larger scale than the already-proven charges pictured above.

This was dismissed by some at the time as ‘fake news’, but a month later some of the mainstream media ‘broke‘ news of the investigation as well.

One of the witnesses in the investigation recently contacted OLAF for an update on their investigation and received a reply that hints that the initial scope of inquiries may gave become even larger:

While, rightly, carefully couched in language to protect the presumption of innocence, the email does give away some significant information and hints at potential interesting developments.

OLAF’s investigation was originally scheduled to report on 12 February this year, but the email confirms that it is still continuing. This would suggest that investigators have found a lot more relevant evidence than they were anticipating – and perhaps that UKIP are not co-operating, which fits with reports alleging that various offices were shredding documents in a panicked attempt to destroy evidence.

The investigator also mentions ‘possible ensuing investigations‘ as a reason for her refusal to give a more substantial update.

An investigation that is still ongoing a full two months after its report was due – and a hint of further investigations spinning off from it. This may suggest that the investigation into UKIP has opened up questions about the wider extreme-right network across Europe.

This would fit with reports received by this blog, but not yet substantiated, that the raid on Marine le Pen’s Front National headquarters in France was in some way connected to the UKIP investigation:

Certainly the reason given for the raid – an investigation into ‘fake jobs’ – bears a strong resemblance to the allegations against UKIP, which include claims that salaries were claimed for non-existent staff as well as for employees engaged entirely in non-qualifying work for UKIP.

A wider investigation would also fit neatly with the recent ‘disarray‘ of the right-wing, UKIP-led Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europefollowing the walk-out of its Executive Director, after the group was found guilty by the EU of ‘misspending’ over €500,000 – including a significant amount on Nigel Farage’s 2015 attempt to be elected as an MP.

Discussions with this blog’s sources are ongoing and the SKWAWKBOX has also contacted Ms Fober to arrange a conversation about the state of the investigation and its wider links, which may yield further useful information after the Easter break.

Let us also remember that Ukip’a new, so called, leader Paul Nuttall has actually conceded the fact that he squandered £99,000 on his failed ambition to get elected in Stoke – in the by-election for a seat at Westminster as an MP – a challenge he totally failed to achieve, largely due to his personality and a string of PR disasters which led many amongst his electorate to believe he was utterly untrustworthy, lacked leadership ability and was most probably an outright and deliberate liar.

It is also worthy of note that Ukip has no financial backer of any consequence and the £99K or at least a substantial part of ity may well also have been sourced illicitly from the public purse via the EU!